Fox Nation Touts Fake Story About Transgender Student Harassing Girls In School Bathroom

October 15, 2013 3:48 pm ET by Carlos Maza

Fox Nation promoted a story claiming that a transgender student was “harassing” female students in the school bathroom, citing wildly inaccurate reporting from a conservative Christian news site that has been debunked by the school’s superintendent.

On October 14, Fox Nation touted an article by the Daily Mail which stated that a transgender student in at Colorado’s Florence High School was “harassing female students in the girls room.” According to the report:

A male student at Florence (CO) High School who claims to be transgendered has caused controversy by harassing female students in the girls room, but will not face any discipline – this despite vocal protests from the girls’ parents.

According the school’s superintendent, however, CBN’s story is based on the complaint of a parent opposed to allowing transgender students to use appropriate bathroom facilities – not on any actual reported incidents of harassment. In an interview with The Transadvocate, Superintendent Rhonda Vendetti stated:

VENDETTI: Nothing has actually been verified with us. This is one parent basically bringing their viewpoint about this situation to the media because they weren’t getting the responses that they hoped they would get from the district, from parents of students at the high school, or from the board and myself. So I think it’s just an attempt to elevate the situation to a point where maybe some more attention can be drawn to that in the hope of having a different outcome. But to our knowledge and based on our investigation, none of those things have actually happened. We do have a transgender student at the high school and she has been using the women’s restroom. There has not been a situation.

Vendetti’s comments aren’t surprising – fears about harassment or misbehavior in schools where transgender students are allowed to use appropriate school facilities have proven to be overblown.

But right-wing commentators, and especially Fox News personalities, have been desperate to promote the myth that equal treatment for transgender students will increase rates of sexual abuse in schools, even going so far as to cite their own alleged desires to harass women in restrooms. Citing a completely fabricated example of harassment as proof that their transphobic fears are justified is par for the course.